Transgender person moves Bombay High Court seeking reservation in Maharashtra State Electricity Transmission Company

A transgender person has moved the Bombay High Court seeking a directive to the Maharashtra State Electricity Transmission Co. Ltd. (MahaTransco) to provide reservations in jobs for the transgender community..The petition filed by Vinayak Kashid, who is a graduate in Electrical Engineering and post graduate in Technology (Electrical Power System Engineering) course, sought modification to the advertisement issued by MahaTransco in May this year for mass recruitment.In the petition, Kashid claimed that she came across an advertisement issued by the MahaTransco on May 4, 2022 to recruit Assistant Engineers (Transmission) on 170 vacant posts. She immediately filled in the form and submitted the same on the next day but before form submission she noted that the advertisement was in breach of the Supreme Court judgment in National Legal Services Authority vs Union of India, in which the top court had recognised several rights for the transgender community. The top court had also ordered the States to reserve some seats in government jobs for transgender persons. "While submitting the form on May 5, I noted that there were both vertical and horizontal reservations for the said posts. In vertical, some posts were reserved for the Scheduled Caste, Scheduled Tribe, Special Backward Castes, Other Backward Castes, Nomadic Tribe and even Economic Weaker Section. In horizontal, some posts were given in reservation for women, orphans and also for differently abled citizens," the plea stated.However, there was no reservation for the transgender community, it was submitted. "Thus, I was forced to apply under the category of open caste despite being from OBC, on instructions of the authorities via a helpline number," the plea said. .Aggrieved by the exclusion of transgender community, Kashid approached the concerned authorities through phone calls and email."I apprehend that respondent authorities would complete the recruitment in June this year itself without any course correction particularly of making reservations for transgender persons. Thus, I seek this court's intervention even because the advertisement in question is bad in law and is illegal and arbitrary," the plea stated.She contended that the advertisement violates her right to life and liberty, as envisaged under Article 21 of the constitution and the right to equality under Article 14.It is the constitutional obligation of the authorities to make enabling provisions for the weaker sections in the society, one of which is to reserve posts for the transgender persons, the plea said.